Better later than never - my intro to th forum

[JRK1971]

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I've got a bad habit of doing things back to front, have already done a few posts and no into about myself.
Firstly thanks to everybody for the advice so far.

Ok - my name is John, im in Adelaide South Australia. I've just turned 40 and decided to have my mid life crisis... The wife decided to let me have a budget for my birthday, so bought a Meteor pinball, not too bad condition, but needs some elec work and general clean up. A few days later I bought a Williams Little Chief EM. Got a little more carried away last week and bought a Gottlieb Surfer EM.... Think its time to stop buying and start repairing (properly)...

My fascination with pinball stated in the late 70's playing them in the fish n chip shops and the movie theatres (this was back when we had intermission half way through).

In my late teens, a mate and I bought 4 machines - Gottlieb Buck Rogers & Countdown, Stern Galaxy & Magic, we messed around for a while and sold 3, I kept the Countdown.

Still got the Countdown, went through the electronics a few years ago (replaced the molex connectors, and got the mpu board working again - did some chipset changes - real pain with those Rockwell chips), but haven't cleaned up the playfield yet - I just received new parts for PBResource (unreal parts).

I figure its time to take a break from working flat out and have some fun - so that's why i've joined the forum - to get advice/ hopefully give advice, and share ideas with other like minded people.

I'll take some photos of the pinnies and post them in this thread tomorrow.

[studley67]

  john,from a fellow sa.i too had my mlc at 40,well 38.its still going at 44,i now have 31 machines.hope you have a big house.lol,regards damien

[Strangeways]

  John, and  to Aussie Pinball !

Hope you find the forum helpful in repairing your games, and I look forward to pics of your collection !

[JRK1971]

Thanks Damien,
Im impressed - 31 machines (not sure my wife will be  )
I've got a big shed - 12x6m, but it got other old junk in there as well, talked the missus into putting one machine in the study  , she wasn't so keen about the lounge room

Thanks Strangeways - you already helped me get the Little Chief going  - big learning curve on these EM machines, but I gotta say I love it, its very interesting learning how stuff worked before SS, I can't believe how well thought out this EM stuff is with relation to game play, state control etc...

[Steevsee]

G'day John and welcome to Aussie Pinball.

Always nice to see more people rediscovering the joys of pinball.

[oldpins]

  John. Can't get enough of those EM's. 

[ajlaird]

Welcome aboard, plenty of assistance available for repair and restoration, not so much for addiction!

[pinnies4me]

Welcome John, great intro. Would have been tough when you got those first four games to source info etc, so much easier these days with the information available and great part sellers overseas like PBR and here RTBB.

[goodolddays]

  John. You've found the right place for lots of help and tips .  Congrats on diving into the EM world too .
Cheers
Dave

[ktm450]

  John 

[el_timbo86]

Welcome John! 

Tim

[JRK1971]

Been out in the shed working on the Little chief. Took a couple of photos....

The Countdown was bought in 1992, back then there was no Internet to ask for help from. I bought a 2nd hand Gottlieb EM repair manaul for $40 from Leisure and Allied in Hindmarsh (was big bucks back then). I rewired it and repaired the electronics in 2008; then I got married, had twins and... well now Im back on to it

The pics show the machine tonight, complete with dust. I've got parts to chuck in the playfield - targets etc (from PBResource - unreal... Wish these guys were available in the old days.

The little chief needs a cabinet repaint, im still working through the electrical and steppers, but it does play correctly except for the match unit and Eject advance unit.

The Meteor plays well, just need to change a couple of incorred playfield parts and fix what I think is a power supply issue (machine resets intermittantly when RH flippers are activated).

The Surfer I bought already restored, its in fab condition, just needs new flipper coils installed (got em now), its going straight to the study (haven't got a pool room). In the photo its temporarily sitting in the lounge room.  Can't bear to stick it in the shed (I'd have to upgrade the shed...)

[pinnies4me]

Surfer looks great, fun game too.

[v8racefan]

  & 

[Strangeways]

Surfer looks great, fun game too.

+1

Looks to be in top condition. Just wondering if you documented the restore ? If you did - post a new "restore" thread in the "Restorations" section. EM restores have a lot of "love" in these parts